Imagine buying the latest game and being able to play it on your console or your PC or your friend's console made by a different manufacturer. It seems preposterous, but with the Java Game Profile, Sun is hoping to make this a reality.

The Java Game Profile creates a gaming standard where a game can be run on a cellphone, PDA, console, or PC. Sun compares this to being able to watch a television station on a 2″ handheld television screen or a massive 65″ screen at home. To get around the obvious complexities of running top-notch games on lower powered processors, Sun gives the example of using handheld devices to do certain tasks, such as inventory or communications in EverQuest, while still using the main PC for actual gameplay.

ROB'S OPINION
The idea of a cross-platform gaming solution is quite compelling. Already we have something akin to this with various emulators, but for many platforms they are still in their infant stages. For example, I can use MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator) to play old arcade games on my PC, or on my Pocket PC, or I can burn a disc with some ROMs and MAMEDC and get them running on my DreamCast console. The process of doing this is complex and tedious, however, and due to the copyrights on various arcade games it may be illegal–there's not even anyone to pay for those old arcade ROMs even if you wanted to. As well, no one's making new arcade games anymore.

The use of Java as a gaming platform would alleviate these issues. However, don't expect Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft to embrace cross-platform compatibility between your favorite consoles anytime soon, even if Sony does appear to be down with the Java gaming idea. Manufacturers spend too much time developing proprietary standards and licensing them to game manufacturers to allow Java to slip in and let unlicensed games show up on the Xbox or PlayStation 2.

That said, it is probably not too hard to set up Linux and Java on those aforementioned consoles, but it surely takes some effort, and that's not something the mainstream console buyer is going to undertake.

As well, console games have been tending to push the limits of 3D acceleration. Limitations of one console or platform in relation to another would keep games development to a mediocre lowest common denominator. However, you don't need the latest 3D acceleration to play Checkers online, Mah Jongg, or Pac Man, so there is a group of marketable games that could go cross-platform.

For now, I think Java gaming could show some promise in spreading massive multiplayer games to various platforms, where the presentation isn't the thing, it's the gameplay. Also, with color screens and faster chips in PDAs nowadays, there could be a baseline Java gaming platform that allows the same games to be played on all PDAs and PCs, assuming that the PDAs can run Java. There's a lot of interesting possibilities, but it will be an uphill battle.

USER COMMENTS 7 comment(s)

I poop, I pee, but this is cool(10:51am EST Tue Apr 09 2002)I know that that bitch has no hair, but in the end fuck u slut I'm going to kill you now fuck google groups, bin laden can pee – by Nileborne

Intelligent(8:10am EST Thu May 02 2002)That almost made sense! – by Uridiot

I dare say,(6:23pm EST Fri May 10 2002)What a bunch of crap, nileborn, get back to your forsaken/stinking/dung filled alley of a country.

But of this message, Rob is right.Java is a great language, but C# has added enums. Besides the claims of garbage collecting problems, it is going to whip the lama's ass.

Java will have a meltdown in followers.This means Microsoft is more than ever poise to make us buy their games, standards, and technology.

Which is not a bad thing, in the end, since their products works fine and are cheap.

To those who are of a more besieged nature, and find comfort in delegating the general incompetence of their fellow men to the nonchalent whims of the Gods, proclaiming that Microsoft is full of whatever, please go out there and find or create a software firm that can adapt gracefully to the miriad of parts and user's incompetence….lolll

Java has been slained by C#. The GDI is simpler and more efficient than the JFC.Games are not to be birthed by Java.

Antoine is either a raving idiot on crack or just a luser with a twisted sense of humour…

Someone put him out of his misery. – by Tzephtan

Response to I dare say.(10:23pm EST Tue Jul 09 2002)I have to diagree with the “I dare say” post and with Rob's opinion that the game companies will not embrace Java. Nintendo and Sony will not have a problem with Java games being made and sold, because they can still make money off of the games. Let me explain, have you ever stuck a non PS, PS2, or non-burned DVD into a PS2? What happens, the PS2 does not read it, unless you have a mod chip but we'll assume that you don't. So, even if a game disc were to be written in Java, it could not run on any system unless the disc held the encoding that allowed the system to recognize it as a playable disc. This means that game companies will still have to pay license fees to the big boys if there game is to be playable on their systems.

As for Microsoft, I don't forsee them ever allowing java on their Xbox. Microsoft has made it clear that it wants to wipe java off the face of the planet because it threatens their strangle hold on the computing world.

I strongly hope for java gaming to get bigger and more powerfull, it will change the entire industry for the better if it does. – by scytho